Letter to John Warnock and Chuck Geschke
Co-founders, Adobe Systems, Inc.

Dear Mr. Warnock and Mr. Geschke,

I dedicated Goodbye Gutenberg: How a Bronx Teacher Defied 500 Years of Tradition and Launched an Astonishing Renaissance to you and the employees of Adobe because it simply would not have been possible to create without a number of Adobe products. Early drafts were designed in QuarkXPress, but I achieved a significant breakthrough with InDesign CS. I often shake my head in astonishment at the quantum leap in productivity made possible by InDesign CS, and how it worked seemlessly with Photoshop, Illustrator and Acrobat.

I am curious to ask: how would it feel if you could travel back in time to when you first started Adobe, and if someone could show you Goodbye Gutenberg and say, “In 20 years, a high school English teacher is going to use your products to create this on her home computer?” In many cases, new technologies have vastly outpaced our capacity to digest their implications. The revolution you started 20 years ago has only just begun. It will continue to mushroom and reverberate for several generations.

Most writers still use Microsoft Word and still think of writing as word processing. Although Adobe products are widely used by designers, an entire generation of young writers is poised to discover them. They will reinvent themselves as “designer writers” and create “designer books” of wondrous beauty. In our lifetime, we will witness a Renaissance no less remarkable than that experienced in Italy 500 years ago.

“Goodbye Gutenberg” does not mean the end of print. It means the end of the long, sad separation between verbal and visual forms of communication. Gutenberg’s invention killed the great illuminated manuscript traditions; Adobe’s products allow us to remarry them, to rediscover and recreate the lost beauty of the books of ages past.

You’ve given the world so many gifts, and I hope you will accept this book as one of the many humble acknowledgements of your efforts.

Warmly,

Valerie Kirschenbaum

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